New techniques are constantly sought to enhance convenience and efficiency of electronic payments. MasterCard International Incorporated of Purchase, N.Y. currently has a business-to-business (B2B) electronic payment program in the marketplace, available under the trademark MasterCard e-P3®. The MasterCard e-P3® electronic payment system successfully integrates a MasterCard Purchasing Card (MasterCard e-P3 Payables Account™) and MasterCard Remote Payment and Presentment Services (RPPS® brand provision of secure electronic delivery of billing remittance data and funds) as settlement options within EIPP (electronic invoice presentment and payment) networks.
US Patent Publication 2004/0215560 of Amalraj et al. discloses an automated computer based payment system and method allowing a variety of different payment requesting sources to be coupled to a variety of payment processors. An integrated payment engine receives payment requests from the payment requesting sources and generates therefrom payment instructions that are delivered to the payment processors. The integrated payment engine employs profile information defining payment requesting source and payment processor preferences and requirements to generate the payment instructions from the payment requests. Additional and/or different payment requesting sources and payment processors can be integrated into the system easily by modifying the profile information. The integrated payment engine also employs flexible risk and operational preferences to generate automatically a payment instruction which will implement the payment request so as to optimize a balance of factors associated with making a payment, such as risk and cost.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,206 to Hilt et al. discloses a bill pay system wherein participating consumers pay bills to participating billers through a payment network operating according to preset rules. The participating consumers receive bills from participating billers (paper/mail bills, e-mail notices, implied bills for automatic debts) which indicate an amount, and a unique biller identification number. To authorize a remittance, a consumer transmits to its bank (a participating bank) a bill pay order indicating a payment date, a payment amount, the consumer's account number with the biller, a source of funds and the biller's biller identification number, either directly or by reference to static data containing those data elements. Bank C then submits a payment message to a payment network, and the payment network, which assigns the biller reference numbers, forwards the payment message to the biller's bank. For settlement, the consumer's bank debits the consumer's account and is obligated to a net position with the payment network; likewise, the biller's bank receives a net position from the payment network and credits the biller's bank account. If the consumer's bank agrees to send non-reversible payment messages, the consumer's bank does not submit the transaction until funds are good unless the consumer's bank is willing to take the risk of loss if funds are not good, in the case of a guaranteed payment network. The biller's bank, upon receipt of the payment message, releases the funds to the biller, and provides A/R data to biller in a form which biller B has indicated, the form being one which does not have to be treated as an exception item to the biller. The biller's bank is assured of payment by the payment network, unless the transaction is a reversible transaction according to the preset rules of the payment network. In specific embodiments, the consumer initiates the bill pay orders manually, via paper at an automated teller machine (ATM), via personal computer (PC), or via telephone keypad.
While certain systems, such as the MasterCard e-P3® electronic payment system, have resulted in a substantial improvement in the art, further progress is desirable.